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One of my many body pet peeves is that I lack hips. At 5’10 and a size 12, every time I put on a dress and look in the mirror, there’s occasionally little areas that poke out because I’m sans curvy hips. I inherited my straight hips from my grandmother, and even though I have ample assets everywhere else, damn that genetic pool that gave my sister hips for days instead of me. If only I could have 1% of the hips that Mikel Ruffinelli has.

Ruffinelli is a mother-of-four and proudly owns the world’s largest hips and her hips measure 8ft around. At 5’4 and 420 lbs, many would probably say that 39-year-old Ruffinelli isn’t the perfect picture of health, but let her tell it, she is in good health.

Ruffinelli also stated that she hasn’t always had her present physique, and it only started after giving birth to her children.

“There was a time before I had kids when I had a flat stomach,” she stated. “I got this large because genetically, whatever happens with weight gain, goes here [hips].”

Her 40′ waist is definitely one part of her body that isn’t in proportion to her hips, so there’s quite possibly some truth in those claims. But what about the claims that she’s actually healthy? There’s one thing to have body confidence, but there’s another to be blinded to the fact that being 420 lbs couldn’t possibly be considered the picture of good health?

Ruffinelli also knows that her hips have caused issues during her everyday life.

“Fitting in, fitting on, sitting down… Those are some of my challenges,” she says. But she’s still not willing to lose the extra weight, but wants the world to become larger.

“I just think that society hasn’t learned that it needs to make things a bit bigger,” she says. “It’s OK to make things bigger. What’s the problem?”

Just as I’ve accepted that I’ll never have hips, Ruffinelli definitely puts a different spend on accepting the fact that her hips are her crowning glory and she’s proud of them. Whatever makes you happy, right?

Since it only started after childbirth and is isolated to that area, it sounds like Lipedema, which affects 11% of the population but is severely underdiagnosed. Google it.

Chazz A

It is nearly impossible for anyone to be considered healthy at 420 pounds. The human body is simply not designed to function under this type of extremity. I respect Ms. Ruffinelli’s confidence , but at age 39 she is risking her life by refusing to lose the extra weight.